Ryan's Crispy, Delicious & Painfully Crunchy Southern Fried Chicken
You want your coating so crispy, it hurts!
Ryan's Crispy, Delicious & Painfully Crunchy Southern Fried Chicken.
DREDGE & BATTER FIXINS
2.5 cups All Purpose Flour
½ cup of Corn Starch
2 tablespoons Salt
2 tablespoons Thyme
2 tablespoons Oregano
2 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning (or Celery Salt if you're a pleb)
2 tablespoons Black Pepper
2 tablespoons Dry Mustard
5 tablespoons Spanish Paprika (or your favourite one. See notes why I choose Spanish)
4 tablespoons Garlic Powder
1 tablespoon Ground Ginger
3 tablespoon WHITE PEPPER! (See notes at the end why this is important)
1.5 cups of Buttermilk
½ cup of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or your favourite “Louisiana Style Cayenne Pepper sauce. Just use the Franks. It’s easy, consistent and if you want it a little spicier, buy the Frank’s Extra Hot.)
DRY INGREDIENTS:
Mix these well and divide in two. Half is for your dry dredge and half is for your batter.
BUTTER FRANKS HOT MILK:
(Shut up it sounds funny) Mix the two of them together well and set aside.
CHICKEN PREP:
Take 4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts and butterfly them. Season both sides with salt and black pepper. Gently smashy smash them with a meat tenderizer until they are evenly about a ½” thick. Slice off the breast filet pieces (chef’s appetizer) Place in a bowl and pour in your milky hot sauce concoction. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Have a beer. Have another one. Go shitpost on social media or something. Whatever it takes to pass the time. Oh shit. The oil! Get your fryer out and…..
COOKING METHOD:
Your frying media is your call. Regular old vegetable or canola oil is fine. Peanut is even better, or a nice mix of the three. Animal fats/lards are ideal depending on what you like for flavour. Duck fat is awesome too, but who has that kinda baller cash?
You don’t necessarily need a deep fryer, but it helps for the double fry method I use to ensure that crunchy texture. You could use a deep pan on the stove. If that’s the case, no double frying because it’s a pain. Just heat your oil to 375F consistently. For the committed fatty with proper tools like me, heat your deep fryer oil for 1st fry to 340F.
Into The Dredges!
Take half of the flour/starch mix and put it in a bowl. Make a well in the middle. Take your chicken out of the fridge and slowly and incrementally drain the buttermilk mixture in and whisk. Add liquid and whisk until you have a batter that is a slight touch thicker than pancake batter. Too thick becomes bread. Too thin becomes a light coating. Find your center, Padawan.
Take the other half of the dry mix and spread it evenly into a shallow cookie sheet or pan. Take your chicken, let the excess buttermilk and hot sauce drip off and dredge it through here until it is covered completely. Dip it into your batter bowl and cover entirely. Let the excess drip off and give it another quick, light pass through the dredge and immediately, but slowly lower into the oil.
...And Into The Fryer
Make sure the basket is already down in the oil. Batter on a cold basket is like cement. Don’t burn yourself, but fingers covered in batter can take a bit of deep fryer oil. Just sayin’. Fry until its starting to crisp and almost a pale golden colour. Raise the basket and let it sit. Crank the fryer up to 375F and have a beer. Once you’re done, drop it back down until it hits an internal temp of minimum 165F. You’ll notice how fast the colour changes this time from pale to deep golden brown. The double fry removes moisture from the batter. After the 1st fry, it’s hot and steaming off that moisture. It’s the trick to crunch in frying. Moisture out, crunchy in.
RECIPE NOTES:
White Pepper: This is a flavour that cannot be replicated with substitutes. If you’re unfamiliar with the differences in peppercorns, I urge you to carefully experiment with dishes you know well. White pepper is a huge component to many Asian cuisines as well. It hits the receptors and throat a lot differently than tableshaker pepper. Try them all!! Szechuan peppercorn might be the most fun out of all of them. That's an entirely different post though.
Spanish Paprika: The only reason I centered this one out is it’s my favourite for chicken. It’s flavour is bright and almost citrus-like compared to smoked paprika or spicy Hungarian variations. You do you, but this is always my go-to for poultry.